Unrelated comments, in no particular order
As a public service . . .
Always, always, always proofread
Try to stay sane.
Random Thursday for October 14, 2020
Category: Random Thursday
Random Thursday for Oct 8, 2020
Unrelated comments, in no particular order
Remember Wishbone? My children loved that show and learned about the great books. My wife met the dog that played Wishbone at DFW Airport. This year is Wishbone’s 25th anniversary. Check out this article.
https://www.texasmonthly.com/the-culture/wishbone-oral-history/
Are the kids who want to stay away from Zoom also staying away from TikTok and Face Time?
A follow up on an earlier post, where John Hagee and Robert Jeffress might be players in their own antichrist scenario. Eric Metaxas appears to have joined the club. He alludes to Revelation 13:4 “Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?”
Try to stay sane.
Random Thursday for October 1, 2020
Unrelated comments, in no particular order.
There’s been a lot said about the presidential “debate.” Let me add two things:
– Joe Biden said he could handle a bully. Apparently he can’t.
– Trump sounded like his debate prep came from the crowd at a MAGA rally.
Here’s something that might help Joe next time, from The Atlantic, How to Win a Debate with a Bully
Try to stay sane.
Random Thursday for January 31, 2019
Unrelated items, in no particular order
I didn’t realize Charlie Cox, who plays (played) Daredevil on Netflix, was British. Here’s other performers who had me fooled:
- Rachel Taylor, who plays Trish on Jessica Jones, is Australian.
- So is Eka Darville, who plays Malcom on the same show.
- Yvonne Strahovski, Serena Joy on The Handmaid’s Tale, is also Australian.
- Max Minghella, who plays Nick on the same show, is British.
- So is Dominic Cooper, the title character from Preacher.
- So is Tom Payne, who played Jesus on The Walking Dead. I already knew about Andrew Lincoln and Lennie James.
Joseph Fiennes on The Handmaid’s Tale is also British, but I remember him from Shakespeare in Love, so he didn’t have me fooled. I must find an American actor or actress I thought was British.
I’ve learned about the “deepity.” According to Daniel Dennett:
A deepity is a proposition that seems to be profound because it is actually logically ill-formed. It has (at least) two readings and balances precariously between them. On one reading it is true but trivial. And on another reading it is false, but would be earth-shattering if true.
Examples include:
If this has you interested, check out this article, that unpacks some deepities for you: https://quillette.com/2018/10/16/deepities-and-the-politics-of-pseudo-profundity/
New York Magazine published an article on the top 100 pens. I don’t know which is worse:
- I’m proud that I use the #1 pen, the Baron Fig Squire. I even wrote the draft for this blog with it. Worth the money.
- Multiple Facebook friends shared the article, what does that say about us?
- My actual favorite pen, the Lamy Safari fountain pen, is #62. No one will ever steal this pen.
Random Thursday for February 22, 2018
Unrelated comments, in no particular order.
Considering the Parkland shootings: I’ve wondered where the expressions of sorrow are from the gun rights advocates. Other than the usual “thoughts and prayers” from politicians, I haven’t heard anything beyond Wayne LaPierre’s opening remarks at CPAC and he mentioned it on the way to making another point. Where is the sorrow that young people died?
In light of Billy Graham’s passing, I’m wondering why no other evangelical pastor has Graham’s standing. It seems that more pastors should have Graham’s reputation for integrity. Discussions abound about whether or not Graham was used by Nixon; Graham was able to emerge without a lasting stain on his reputation. It seems so ironic to talk about that now, in light of the relationship between evangelicalism and today’s president.
(Image is “Candlelight Vigil 4” by “Ben Townsend” on Flickr. CC-BY-2.0. Pray for Parkland.)
Random Thursday for August 17, 2017
Some random postings about Charlottesville. Well, they’re not so random, they’re things I agree with. These two are shared with permission of the authors.
I’ve been curious about what the president’s evangelical advisory council has been saying about this. Here are two conflicting articles.
False Prophets in the White House – https://sojo.net/articles/false-prophets-white-house
AND
Trump’s Faith Advisers Condemn White Supremacy – http://www.cnn.com/2017/08/13/politics/trump-evangelical-board-white-supremacists/index.html
Random Thursday for June 15, 2017
Unrelated comments in no particular order
Montana Congressman Greg Gianforte body slammed a reporter during his campaign. He’s since apologized. This is the best commentary about the comments on that event. It’s called “Face it: The body-slammed reporter did just what you would have done” by Felix Biederman.
The Texas Legislature comes back for a special session on July 18th. The agenda includes the Texas Bathroom Bill. Supporters tell me its purpose is to protect women from men posing as women. Am I supposed to believe that when a man dresses as a woman, hides out in the women’s room, and sexually assaults a woman, he has not violated any law?
Has anyone played this game: Two Rooms and a Boom? Two teams are randomly placed in two rooms. One team has the President. The other has a bomb. The teams swap players between the two rooms in “hostage exchanges.” At the end of the exchanges, if the President and the bomb are in the same room, the bomb team wins. If not, the President team wins.
The Kansas legislature overrode Gov. Sam Brownback’s veto of a tax increase bill. The bill’s purpose was to reverse some disastrous tax cuts. The tax cuts were supposed to be a “shot of adrenaline to the heart of the Kansas economy.” Extra money leads to investment, which leads to business expansion, which leads to prosperity. Except when it doesn’t. Any discussion I ever had about money for product development or capital improvements always came down to one question: what’s the rate of return? It’s nice to have the money in your pocket, but if a company doesn’t think spending money will make money, it won’t spend money. Handing a company money is no guarantee it will stimulate the economy. The whole thing sounds vaguely socialistic.
(Image is “BOOM” by “Richard Eriksson” on Flickr. CC-2.0. He’s Canadian.)
Random Thursday for April 27, 2017
Just under the wire to make Thursday, here are unrelated comments, in no particular order.
Interesting book I want to read: about a second American Civil War. The author has been a war correspondent for many years and applied what he’s seen around the world to the US.
Cannibalism Study Finds People Are Not That Nutritious – It’s hard to eat enough people to get your daily calories. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/04/human-cannibalism-nutrition-archaeology-science/
An education should leave you smart enough to know when you’re being played.
Random Thursday for October 13, 2016
Unrelated comments, in no particular order
Happy Birthday to my good friend Teri Harrington!
If you’ve read these before, you know I’m neither a conservative nor a Trump supporter. This blog is about the hard work you have to do to arrive at the best answers and I want to give credit to people who are doing just that. Please take the time to read this conservative blog post, which I think offers both clarity and a call to responsibility.
Kelly Oxford asked women to share stories of their sexual assaults under the hashtag #NotOkay. The response exceeded everyone’s expectations. Maybe this will create the kind of change we need.
Random Thursday for October 6, 2016
Unrelated comments, in no particular order
The website of The Thomas Jefferson Foundation has a section on things attributed to Jefferson that he never said.
The information in the picture below is total garbage, but that hasn’t kept it from being shared widely on Facebook. I’ve seen this at least three times.
The March of Dimes doesn’t give money to the needy, it collects money for medical research. They started out by collecting dimes to raise money to cure polio – which they accomplished. The information about UNICEF’s CEO is completely wrong. 
The Feral Deacon 